Armenia’s Defense Minister confers with Artsakh Army leadership during visit to military bases in Artsakh
Armenia’s Defense Minister David Tonoyan was on a working visit to Artsakh on Thursday, when Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev unleashed a new round of threats saying, “The Armenian armed forces must leave our lands before it’s too late.”
“As Defense Minister,” Tonoyan said on Friday, “I would like to know what ‘before its too late’ means.”
He also responded to comments by his Azerbaijani counterpart who said that his army was ready and waiting for orders from Aliyev to resume war.
“First of all, it’s not that we don’t wait for such orders,” Tonoyan said in a video released by his press office. “Second, the hostilities in Tavush were vivid proof of the fact that despite the enemy’s intensive use of state-of-the-art equipment it did not achieve success and, instead, suffered many losses.”
“The Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of the Artsakh Republic have always refrained from such statements. Instead, they have called for peace and continued negotiations. Therefore, such statements are unclear to us,” added Tonoyan.
While in Artsakh, Tonoyan visited several military units and subdivision and became acquainted with daily operations of the Artsakh troops. He also inspected the newest weapons being used by the Artsakh Armed Forces and spoke of further modernization of the military technology.